Be honest now. No sugar coating any bonehead actions done in the past!
Myself, being mechanically minded, since a young age I used to take anything and everything apart to see how it worked. Whether or not these items ever worked again is another story. What does come to mind is a Harman Kardon 330A which I bought brand new and still own. It was the centerpiece for the parties we used to have in the 70's and was always on when we were home.
One day the cover came off to see what made it tick. I didn't have a clue what a cap or a diode was but did understand transistors a bit from what I had read. What I did discover was the speakers would develop more bass by turning these twisty things (VR's) inside it while the unit was up and running. Yup, that was my introduction to adjusting idling current and DC balance. Dohh! It was also around this time the unit made several trips to the shop for repairs as it would constantly blow output and driver transistors but that was probably due more to the high volumes demanded of it on party nights.
Something else I think about is an old open tube radio amp I used to have when I was a kid. It was probably from the 30's or 40's as the speaker had several wires going to it and we used to call it a power speaker. I took the speaker out of my six transistor pocket radio and it worked as a microphone when hooked up to the amp. Kind of a homemade PA system.
What I do remember well though is the light tingling electric shock I would get when handling the open chassis while sitting on a tiled concrete floor down in the basement. Now I realize it was probably a hot chassis I was playing with and was a 'short' step away from meeting my maker if I had touched one of the exposed plumbing pipes down there at the same time! Yup, I feel lucky today!
Myself, being mechanically minded, since a young age I used to take anything and everything apart to see how it worked. Whether or not these items ever worked again is another story. What does come to mind is a Harman Kardon 330A which I bought brand new and still own. It was the centerpiece for the parties we used to have in the 70's and was always on when we were home.
One day the cover came off to see what made it tick. I didn't have a clue what a cap or a diode was but did understand transistors a bit from what I had read. What I did discover was the speakers would develop more bass by turning these twisty things (VR's) inside it while the unit was up and running. Yup, that was my introduction to adjusting idling current and DC balance. Dohh! It was also around this time the unit made several trips to the shop for repairs as it would constantly blow output and driver transistors but that was probably due more to the high volumes demanded of it on party nights.
Something else I think about is an old open tube radio amp I used to have when I was a kid. It was probably from the 30's or 40's as the speaker had several wires going to it and we used to call it a power speaker. I took the speaker out of my six transistor pocket radio and it worked as a microphone when hooked up to the amp. Kind of a homemade PA system.
What I do remember well though is the light tingling electric shock I would get when handling the open chassis while sitting on a tiled concrete floor down in the basement. Now I realize it was probably a hot chassis I was playing with and was a 'short' step away from meeting my maker if I had touched one of the exposed plumbing pipes down there at the same time! Yup, I feel lucky today!
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